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Chapter 5 |
Page 18 |
Children should make themselves worthy of their parents. They should seek to be all that the father and mother in their most ardent dreams hoped for them. It is a sad thing to disappoint love’s brilliant expectations. It matters not so much if mere dreams of earthly greatness fail to come true, for ofttimes the hopes of ambitious parents for their children are only for honors that wither in a day, or for wealth that only sinks the soul to ruin. Such hopes were better disappointed. But in the heart of every true Christian parent there glows an ideal of very fair beauty of character and nobleness of soul, which he wants to see his child attain. It is a vision of the most exalted life, lovelier than that which fills the thought of any sculptor as he stands before his marble and begins to hew at the block; fairer than that which rises in the poet’s soul as he bows in ecstatic fervor over his page and seeks to describe his dream. Every true, godly parent dreams of the most perfect manhood and womanhood for his children. He wants to see them grow up into Christ likeness, spotless in purity, rich in all the graces, with character fully developed and rounded out in symmetrical beauty, shining in this world, but shining more and more unto the perfect day.
Just here it may be suggested to children that a large part of what seems to them “fussiness” and needless fault finding on the part of the parents is due to anxiety to have them perfect. Parents sometimes err through over anxiety or through unwise and irritating because incessant admonitions, but the sons and daughters should recognize the fact that deep anxiety for their well doing is at the root of even this excessive carefulness.
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